August 03, 2007

We have a rain barrel just like the one pictured here. When we first saw our new house, there was a green plastic rain barrel here, but the previous owners took it with them. One day Cory came home with this one, and it is beautiful. Plants love the soft, warm water from the rain barrel much more than the hard, freezing cold water from our house. I even read that you can make a compost "tea" with an old pillowcase, a shovel full of compost, and hang it inside your rain barrel for an added whack of nutrients!I love our barrel! I can keep our flowers alive and not feeling guilty about wasting water. I have vague childhood memories of my grandfather washing his hair with the rain water from his barrel. Maybe I'll give that a whirl one day...

July 01, 2007

We are moved in and getting things organized slowly. My sister and my mom came on moving day and spent the night. They did so much unpacking. I am forever grateful to them. This photo is of a tiny portion of our garden that Cory has tamed... weeded, mulched, new rose bushes added to the existing ones, and even a warrior standing guard. It is inspiring to have this little spot of tameness among all the overgrown gardens! I'll be adding more pictures as we take them!

May 24, 2007

Here is the outside of our new house. It is oddly situated on the lot. The side faces the road. This is the back (side) yard taken from the road.I haven't done much packing. I packed two boxes of records. I need some more boxes that fit the albums. I have to get going on this packing thing!

May 22, 2007

This morning I packed five boxes of day care stuff. I am giving all my day care things to my sister-in-law, who will go through it all and pick what she wants and get rid of the rest. That is going to be one heck of a lot of stuff! Hope your are ready for it Eva!We found a home for our dishwasher and our basement fridge. We are not taking those with us.We have booked movers! This is the first time we have used movers, and I am so flippin' excited about that. We are still packing everything but the movers will come in and load the truck and then unload it at the new house. I am so happy! The thought of trudging up and down, in and out, up and down just makes me want to crawl into a hole and cry! So the moving men thing is a very good thing!

May 16, 2007

The deals are done! Signed, sealed, delivered! Our house is sold and we have purchased another. It is so good to have everything settled. We move in six weeks. This is a photo of our new kitchen taken today during the home inspection. We will have plenty of decorating to do, and a few fix ups to make, but we are happy with our purchase. First fix up is a new roof! Ugh!

April 05, 2007

So almost nine weeks so far. Last Saturday I actually remembered to bring my shopping bins (although I had to turn around after I had already left the house). My stash o' bags is greatly reduced, and soon I am going to have to get very creative with packaging up stinky diapers and kitty litter. Maybe I will send the diapers home with the day care kids for their parents to throw out!

I am finding myself to be so much more aware of what I am throwing in the trash and what our city does not collect for recycling. Things like plastic film and bags. Certain hard plastics. Our city only takes #1, 2, 4 and 5, so things like a coffee cup lid is not recyclable here. Hubby and I both have stainless steel travel mugs that we use for drinks from home, but we've never tried to get one filled at a coffee shop. I remember hearing that Tim Horton's won't fill them. I should try and see what happens.

So I have been thinking about things that we do in our household already to live a little more lightly. We keep in cool at night and I like it cool in the day. We turned up our air conditioning a few degrees last summer. We turn out light bulbs. We use compact fluorescent bulbs. We reuse most plastic bags and containers.

Some things we don't do that I know we should... let the car idle. Unplug things when not in use like the stereo and tv and computer and coffee maker and phone chargers and on and on and on.One thing I recently did was purchase a giant package of paper Dixie cups for the day care kids to use. I got so sick and tired of washing cups a zillion times a day. The Dixie cups are the perfect size for little drinks, and although I feel terribly guilty about using them and throwing them out... the sanity saving factor far outweighs the guilt. I have been thinking forward to garden and yard work. Pesticides will be banned in our city in 2008. We could get a push mower.

March 23, 2007

There is a Ray of Hope in Ontario's budget. Included are rebates for home energy audits (here is a link to Ontario's new ecoEnergy Retrofit program) and a campaign of people going to door to door to install energy efficient light bulbs in your front porch light! This article also includes a link to a breakdown on the $125 million in environmental commitments in the budget.

No Impact Man : This is the blog from the family in the above article. Good reading!

Here is an update about my weekly changes and how well or not well I have been keeping them.

Week #1 - at least one meatless meal a week - I have had this dang manicotti recipe on my menu week after week, and I never get around to making it. It is good, but fussy and time seems to have been at a premium around here lately. So I haven't been doing well with this one really. My day care kids have meatless lunches quite regularly, but the goal was really for my own family meals.

Week #2 - not to buy paper napkins - This has been easy because I have a big bag of napkins here to use up. I have purchased a beautiful set of cloth napkins at the thrift store that I will use for company. I am still on the look out for the perfect every day cloth napkins. I think I want them to be black... to hide stains. I found some new black ones but would much prefer to buy used.

Week #3 - wash out and reuse milk bags - This is going very well. I have found that stuffing a dish towel inside the bag and just letting it sit is the fastest way to dry the bag. It will dry in a few hours that way. I have also found myself washing out ziplock bags, something I was too lazy to do before.

Week #4 - no more plastic bags from stores - Dummy that I am... I now am the owner of six lovely bins that fit in my shopping cart. Shop, place items in bins. Get to check out, pack items back into bins. Put bins in car. Take bins from car to house. Empty bins. It really is very easy.But I FORGOT to bring them with me last week. Furthermore, I am still not in the habit of asking for no bag from other stores. I really need to work on this one.

Week #5 - I didn't choose a new goal this week... just worked on previous ones.

Week #6 - trash walk around the neighbourhood. I have not done this yet.

Week #7 - start composting again - I finally emptied out our coffee can and it now lives on the counter top. There are a few things inside. Yesterday I had to pick out a banana peel from the garbage can and put it in the compost can. It takes a while to change habits!

This week's new habit? I think I will just work on the previous ones... especially the no bag thing.

March 19, 2007

A & P stores (Food Basics, Loeb, Dominion, Ultra Mart) has a fabulous reusable bag. Someone gave me one this weekend, and it is so durable and strong! They are made from 100% recyled stuff and are machine washable. They are 99 cents! What a bargain! Go get some and never use a plastic bag again!

Quote of the Week

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain